European politics

French foreign policy

France goes it alone

FRANCE’S decision on January 11th to begin air strikes against Islamist rebel positions in northern Mali, designed to prevent “the establishment of a terrorist state” in the African Sahel, contained elements of both surprise and familiarity.

The surprise was that François Hollande, the president, a Socialist leader not known for decisive action and untried in foreign policy, moved so swiftly to order French fighter jets and attack helicopters into action. Using warplanes based both in France and at a permanent base in nearby Chad, the French struck rebel columns advancing out of Islamist-held territory and towards Bamako, the Malian capital. Such groups, with ties to Al-Qaeda, have ruled a big chunk or the north of the country since March last year.

The French government said that the weekend air strikes, part of what it is calling Operation Serval, had stopped the rebel advance, and helped Malian troops to regain control of the town of Konna; one French helicopter pilot was killed, as well as a dozen Malian soldiers. On the third day of air attacks, the French struck deeper into Islamist-held territory, targeting training camps and logistics centres, according to Jean-Yves Le Drian, the defence minister.

France has certainly been in the lead in pushing for intervention in Mali. It drafted a United Nations Security Council resolution authorising a regional African force to retake rebel-held territory, which was unanimously passed last October. In a speech to a gathering of French-speaking countries in Senegal last year, Mr Hollande spoke of a “reign of terror” in Islamist-held Mali, where sharia law has been applied in the furthest north.

France is particularly worried that the Sahel is becoming an “Afrighanistan”—a breeding ground for terrorists—thanks in part to modern weaponry that has spilled over the Libyan border after the war there. France itself has been named as a target by groups based in the north; this weekend, as the airstrikes began, the country raised its terrorism-security alert. France also has strong commercial links in the region, and there are currently eight French hostages in the region.

Mr Hollande had also made clear that it was no longer his intention for France to play the role of regional gendarme, stepping in to prop up African rulers, as has been the post-colonial tradition under the Fifth Republic. “Françafrique”, the opaque mesh of military, political and commercial ties, was over, he claimed. Until now, he had insisted that France would offer no more than logistical support to a regional African force, which was laboriously being put together for this autumn.

Which is where the element of familiarity comes in. The reality, acknowledged privately by French sources, is that the Malian army was in no position to defend itself, and that the regional African force was going to take too long to assemble. Mr Hollande stressed that France was acting with a legal international mandate, and responding to a request from the Malian president, Dioncounda Traoré, for help. In a diplomatic breakthrough of sorts, Algeria granted France permission for fighter jets to fly over its airpace. Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, said on French radio on January 13th that France had little choice but to intervene urgently or Islamist forces might have made it to Bamako, with “appalling consequences”.

However much successive French presidents say that they want to put an end to post-colonial intervention in Africa, with few other takers for the job it usually proves irresistible at some point. Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Hollande’s predecessor, had also promised a new era, only to end up sending the French army to help Côte d’Ivoire forcibly evict Laurent Gbagbo, the loser of that country’s presidential election, from office.

The question now is how long the French are prepared to intervene, and how fast a decent African ground force can realistically be put in place. Mr Fabius has talked of “a question of weeks” for the French intervention. He insists that its main contribution is air power, with the few hundred special forces on the ground essentially picking out and verifying targets.

It is the West African force that is supposed to carry out the operation to retake the north from Islamists, and there is a regional meeting on this now set for January 19th. Initial contingents of troops from Senegal, Niger, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Togo are now due to arrive within days. But a properly manned force will still take time to assemble. France, in short, is likely to find itself involved for a while. Mr Hollande himself has stated that the French operation would last “as long as necessary”.

There were not over 40,000 civilian Libyans killed by "western" bombs. That is a lie, sponsored by fundamentalist propaganda.
And, the Libyan Revolution was not a "western" operation. Aside from the obvious fact that the Libyan people themselves fought the war on the ground, there were fighter-bombers from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Turkey. Saudi Arabia provided weapons to the rebels, and the entire operation was formally endorsed by the Arab League.

Mali is a former French colony and Mali still has extremely close connections to France.
So if Mali was asking its former colonial rulers for help it is nothing but an affair between France and their colony.
Mali is not a business for the rest of the world and so France has to deal this little problem quite alone.
For a super-power as France has been regarding itself since ever they should easily be able to handle such a little local problem in one of their colonies.
Big countries and super-powers must be able to handle their own problems and should always try to make one of their national problems to an international involvement.
So it is more than wise that Germany is staying as neutral as possible in this case.
Germans never had and never will have anything to do in Africa.

but we are only engaged in Africa, while for Syria, there's only wishful thinking. But our Brave European brothers have the free ride if they want to show us how to manage the war in ME, as there's also NATO on the deal

Of course some Europeans are concerned. But not all Europeans are concerned because Mali is nothing but a mere French affair.
It is one of those various French colonies where they do speak French and so it is nothing but a French affair.
Consequently Hollande has sent only French troops there (Others he has not under his command)
Perhaps the American friends or the British friends of France which ave unlimited military resources as super-powers can help.
And on the other hand it looks rather weird if just a super-power like France would need support for a limited military action in a former colony from other countries.
I think this way the French will have to go alone as neither the US nor the British are willing to help.
And the opinion of Cohn Bandit is not significant.
And I do not see any other country in Europe , apart from the two big super-powers, which would be prepared for a war outside of Europe.
So France has the full moral and political support by all European countries.
Perhaps Italy and Spain could send some soldiers?

Are you naive? France has no economic interests in Mali, but has intervened SOLELY because of the threat to neighboring Niger, where Areva has huge investments. The fear of contagion from Mali is very real.

The French will have great difficulty in succeeding alone, and eventually will need help from their allies as more more jihadists flock to the region from as far away as Pakistan.

The French record since 1945 has not been good, Indo-China, Algeria, part-timers in the First Gulf War. What's more, under Sarkozy, their defense budget was cut to the bone.

"On the contrary, it is about reclaiming the wealth of the region for its inhabitants and creating economic conditions that are conductive to local growth " => It's rather about foreign djihadists imposing archaic and brutal islamic law to a very reticent population... your propaganda is the very reason why the French army is currently bombing those crazy fanatics

A U.N. "sanctioned" intervention in a predominantly Muslim country? I am glad Mr. Hollande is doing the selfless and commendable. He is ensured the morally high ground by his last name not being "Bush". Otherwise global mass protests and derision would accompany these actions that so much seem equivalent to American ones in the 2000s.

The thing here is that "meddling in" actually means "defending", and may I stress the fact that the ennemies here are self-proclaimed terrorists, which I thought were considered as ennemies by most of the international community

Was'nt France who started off the Vietnam war?? Will France do the same as in Vietnam???
Hummm!! This does'nt smell like "help"....... It sounds and smells very much like Vietnam, but this time in Africa.